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Bruce Arians still has his fire. It’s been there a few times on the sideline this season — for those asking where it went — and it most certainly was there in Carolina last weekend during halftime.

Arians, during his weekly coach’s show “Cardinals Flight Plan” late Saturday night, Arians said what he said in the locker room, he “couldn’t repeat it.”

“There were a lot of things thrown, and my temper was … I haven’t done that since I was 33 years old with Temple, at Deleware,” Arians said. “I don’t really think anything gets done that way, but it was just ridiculous the way we were playing offensively.”

The Cards played better on offense in the second half, but that isn’t necessarily the point. I think it says something that Arians, who has had plenty of heated moments in games and in practices since he arrived in Arizona, got into his team harder in his mind than any time in the last 30 years. Arians is right, I think — on the NFL level, anger doesn’t help a lot, not with pro athletes — but clearly, Arians hasn’t lost his ability to lose it on his team. It also shows where his frustration level was before the bye.

No big deal. EVERYONE needs a button chewing on occasion. He won’t be the freak of the week like Bo Pellinni, but theses cats need to wake up and follow Mr. Fitzgerald’s lead, and show the passion that was evident last season.

The Arizona Cardinals in recent years have hired two front office execs who have had ties to the Patriots: Jason Licht (now the GM in Tampa) and Terry McDonough.

At this point…what kinds of approaches do the Cardinals take that are similar to the Patriots’?

* Moving up and down in the draft
* Making key trades
* Appointing young coordinators
* Having the ability to run the football with a combination of power and finesse
* Employing RBs who are skilled receivers

What approaches do the Patriots take that the Cardinals don’t?

* Hoarding picks in the draft
* Drafting defensive personnel and prototypes that fit their style of the 3-4 defense
* Placing emphasis on the short and intermediate passing game by stockpiling TEs and slot WRs
* Trading players at their max value before they lose them to free agency
* Playing their starters longer than any other team during the pre-season
* Developing young QBs and not overpaying on a veteran backup
* Practicing both Tuesday and Wednesday of the bye week

Head Coaching Comparisons:

* The handling of the media: BA—open book; BB—closed book.
* Discussing Players to the media: BA—open book; BB—closed book. (When BB is asked about a player, he always references the team. For example, when recently asked how well he thinks Brady is playing, BB praised the effort level of the entire offense).
* Talking about players’ potential: BA—uses superlatives; BB—won’t go there.
* Talking about Super Bowl: BA—makes it a constant reference point; BB—won’t go there, and all his players have a gag order where that is concerned.
* The handling of officials: BA—consistently harping; BB—picks his spots, but mostly reserved.
* Emphasis on special teams: BA—not a priority; BB—one of the top priorities.
* Coin toss: BA—take the ball; BB—defer.
* Calling plays: BA—calls the offense and sometimes the defense; BB—advises OC, DC and STC when necessary.
* Stretching: BA—no organized stretching; BB—organized and extended warmups
* Headwear: BA—cap or Kangol; BB—nothing or hoodie.
* HC records: BA—(38-20-1); (1-2) postseason; BB—(253-123); 23-10 postseason.

Bill Belichick didn’t exactly set the world on fire early in his career. In fact, in his first 6 years as a head coach he had 5 losing records and went 41-55. His 7th year was the charm—going 11-5 and winning the Super Bowl.

BA is understandably still learning the nuances of being a head coach. The fact that he’s had such unprecedented success early in his head coaching career is impressive.

For the first time, BA is wondering how to motivate his underachieving team. His frustration is at an all-time high.

I think he and the players are still trying to get over getting sucker punched by Seattle and Carolina last year. None of them saw that coming. Up until week 17 last year, it was the first time in eons that the Cardinals were competitive in every game—it was the best sustained effort through 15 games that we have seen from the Cardinals, plus an unprecedented 6-0 in prime-time regular season games..

Now, this year, the team has struggled to win close games (0-2-1) and has gotten blown out twice, to go with 2 convincing wins.

It should be fascinating to see what BA learns about himself, his coaching staff and the team in the weeks ahead…and just how motivated the players are to step up when it matters most.

There seem to be a few good big strong College Qb’s this year that the Cards could draft next year. The kid from Mason Rudolph from OSU is impressive. He is a Jr.; but if he comes out he would be a good pick. Also, their Kicker Ben Grogan would be a great replacement for Catanzaro.

Mitch~ ~ VERY impressive posting detail, esp the coach comparison. I had trouble finding disagreement with much of anything.

You can find few non-Patriots fans who love to listen to Belichick…to include media types. Conversely, many fans are amused with Arians’ media approach trying to be the cool uncle. I take that as one who wants to be loved ~ the other who could care less. BA employs the lovable blue collar approach.

Bottom line – you cannot be good friends with your children until they’re grown. A big IF your children turn a deaf ear, ’tis easy to anger. The “coach ’em hard and hug ’em later works only short term…better to apply tough love & trusted guidance than to propose conditional responses.

Any ambitious employee ((player)) will understand fair, well-defined LEADERSHIP. Motivating a bunch of intense, sometimes lazy young guys is difficult and can test one’s sanity.

I’ve always agreed that coaches in any sport should themselves be trained to try to understand the psyche of players, not just their physical prowess…many athletes have improved exponentially when they understand how to organize the gray matter between their ears.

Yogi use to say the game is 90% mental; the other half is physical!! ..be well Cards Fans

I am a Cardinals fan and a Cardinals season ticket holder for years! I’ve spent more at Cardinals games than you ever will in your life. I call them as I see them. He expects our fan base to be like the Steelers or Browns….. we don’t have that kind of demographic locally. I am tired of screaming my lungs out at games and then hearing him say the fans weren’t good enough. As for shutting my mouth, that is not going to happen, young man. If you want to criticize, keep it civil. If you want to threaten, take it elsewhere.

By the way, Hank… On Sunday night football, Al Michaels proudly boasted that Arians told him the local fan base is so riddled with fans from other teams, he sometimes has to practice the “silent count” for home games. That is nonsense. Arians is making excuses for losing home games and he uses the local fan base as a scapegoat. Maybe you should pay more attention, Hank. He is insulting us.

Marlin relax, I’ve been a Cards fan since I was 10 years old (1963). I have never had a team of this caliber to cheer for for 50 years of my life. Enjoy it while it lasts. This stuff is fleeting. And I hope auto correct doesn’t change words like my last post.

I know Arians needs to change up things. I think he need to start deferring instead of always receiving all the time because every time he receives the beginning kickoff they always lose the game. I think it can not hurt try something different can not lose anything.

@mitchaz. Very good post contains some subtle points. Arian’s career as a head coach is limited so I am anxious to see if he learns what he needs to change. Playing his offensive players for short periods during exhibitions was a big mistake. Something that bothered me before the start of the season.

It is accepted that communications among the Oline is more important than on any other position on the team. With 3 of the 5 starters on the Oline new it is in IMO critical to give them plenty of time playing together. It is also critical to Palmer’s health.

Think about this: If the Bills can somehow manage a W, then we are just one game behind Seattle. And next week we play the Niners at home, while Seattle goes to NE — just about the easiest opponent we could possibly have, and the toughest team in football for the Seahawks.

We could both be 4-4-1 at that point. And even if Seattle beats the Bills, we should be 4-4-1 while they are only a game up at 5-3-1 assuming a loss at NE, and we still have a head-to-head game which, if we win, gives us the tiebreaker. Yeah, I know it’s in Seattle, but we’ve won both times Palmer has played there. It’s doable.

Personally, I like deferring as well. I think there’s more of a strategic advantage starting the 2nd half with the ball than in starting the game with the ball.

But saying that “every time he receives the beginning kickoff they always lose the game” is absurd. Since almost everyone but the Cards defers, we are pretty much guaranteed to start on offense in every game, whether we win the toss or not. And, obviously, the Cards have won a lot more games than they’ve lost in Arians’ tenure. So blaming the fact that he doesn’t defer for the Cardinals’ woes is silly. I could just as easily argue (incorrectly) that a main reason for the Cards’ success in past years is that they DIDN’T defer.

Well, so much for the Bills helping us out. I just would not count on getting any help from the Seahawks here. Look at the calendar – this is when they typically start to roll and watching the game last night….Wilson started to look like Wilson again. We gotta face it – the division ship has sailed. I’m not sure which I think is more un-likely at this point – a big win streak for the Cardinals or a big losing streak for the Seahawks. I don’t see either one. We played ourselves too far into the hole. And we got nobody but ourselves to blame.

I still think we can win the division. Not saying I expect us to, but we can.

Yes, Seattle has, in recent years, been a 2nd half team, and Wilson did look better… but on the other hand, they put up 3 points the entire second half, and were (once again) the beneficiaries of some weird stuff going on from the refs. I can be convinced that Sherman shouldn’t have been called for roughing. But what happened on the play where the ref stood over the ball until there were just a few seconds left and then Buffalo got called for a delay of game was a travesty.

And of course, we have no idea what happens from there if the Bills kick a FG just before the half, but they lost by 6 in a game where they were screwed out of 3 points and were inside the 10 yard line at the end of the game.

Anyway, back to Seattle… they aren’t going to magically fix their O-line problems. Wilson being able to run a little more as the season progresses will help, but he really needs a week off and he ain’t getting one.

After Sunday, where one would anticipate we will win (obviously, if we can’t beat SF, we may as well fold up the tent) and Seattle will lose @ NE, we will be one game back with a head-to-head matchup left. Assume for the moment that we win that game (certainly doable; we’ve won the last two times in Seattle that Palmer has played). So that means we own the tiebreaker, and we have the same record as Seattle. So the season would be decided by whether we can match them in our final 6 games. We only have to finish with the same record (assuming we can win in Seattle), not ahead of them.

So the season would be decided by those other six games. We have a couple tough ones, but @MIN sure looks a lot more winnable than it did a few weeks ago, doesn’t it? @ATL comes down to PP keeping Jones from going crazy, and our offense putting up points. Washington and NO are winnable at UofP. Miami and LA are winnable on the road.

Not saying we’ll win them all, but win 4 out of those 6, and then also win the Seattle game, and that means Seattle has to go 5-1 in their other 6 games (after they’ve lost to the Patriots). They’ve still got Philly, Carolina, @GB, among other games. And if we can somehow manage to go 5-1 in those other 6 games, they’d have to go undefeated. Again, this all assumes that we can win in Seattle. But considering how this season has gone, the fact that we might even be in a position to salvage the year with a win in Seattle — I’ll take it.

Now, if they don’t lose to the Patriots, then this whole analysis changes, so we’ll know a lot more about our chances of this scenario developing after Sunday.

Regarding Seattle, another thing that would seem to help your scenatio of hope is that the Seahawks are missing pieces on defense as well. Right now, anyway. But I think those guys ( Kam, Bennett ) will be back. But regardless, it was seeing their passing game start to come back to life with Wilson looking the most like Wilson than he has in over a month that is the biggest concern. With the addition of Graham, and with Wilson getting his mobility back, that offense could very quickly revert to the juggernaut it was over the 2nd half of last season. If THAT happens, it would adequately compensate for their defense.

Good points Scott and I agree, I think the Division could be winnable and our best hope for a playoff opportunity. Watching as much football as I do, there are some good teams ahead of us who will be battling for a wildcard. But, that depends on us, and, to put our hopes on the wishful thinking of failure(s) by our biggest rival is foolish; we are in charge of our own destiny. Nonetheless, certain teams that started out hot, like Minnesota and Philly are beginning to cool rapidly.
The Falcons have always been an albatross around our neck, and winning that would be a confidence builder our team seems to need more than ever. We CAN BE a good road team, if we grow up and remember it’s business and not vaca. It’s even that this road stretch could be a good team building opportunity, time to be a little more introspective and bond as a fully functioning unit on a mission. This team seems to be lacking maturity and focus, like the party will go on forever, and that everybody will get extensions, or a big contract some place else…the clock is ticking and players (and staff) need to be playing like their job security depends on acting the second semester after a lack luster start.
The 9er game may not seem big but it will be HUGE, if it turns into a loss. We should never underestimate our opponent, and despite what our personal feelings may be, never underestimate Kaeperick either. He is mobile and DID take his team to the SB just a few years ago. We have never done well against mobile QBs and low ranking teams seem to be our special vulnerability.
We need to treat every game like it is a practice exercise for playing the Cowboys or Patriots at full strength. This is an opportunity to show who we really are.